NASA astronaut Shannon Walker had a bit of a rough start to her day Tuesday (July 23). Shortly after she took off from Johnson Space Center in Texas on her way to help hand out some well-deserved awards at NASA's Langley Research Center, a bird struck the engine of her T-38.

Scary stuff. But Walker barely missed a beat.

She landed her crippled plane, filled out some paperwork and hopped in another jet, arriving at NASA Langley in time to hand out several Silver Snoopy and Space Flight Awareness awards.

albatron

Thankfully she's ok. I'm curious though, was she Pilot in Command?

mach3valkyrie

From the vague nature of the press release, only one of the two engines was affected by the bird strike and the T-38 had sufficient power with the other engine so that Astronaut Walker and the pilot could land safely.

I'm glad they're okay.

Delta7

I'm not aware that she's a jet-rated pilot. Presumably she was in the rear seat and a NASA pilot was flying, but why leave that out in the news release? It makes it out like she was flying alone, unless I'm missing something.

Cozmosis22

Glad everything turned out OK.

There's nothing in her bio to indicate that she is a pilot, and never flew on the STS. Maybe a bit of "journalistic exuberance" in that report? Her husband, astronaut Andy Thomas, was a non-pilot mission specialist.

Robert Pearlman

Walker is a licensed pilot and owns her own aircraft, but to my knowledge, she's a backseater in the T-38. I have inquired with JSC but probably won't hear back until Monday.

Robert Pearlman

Per a NASA spokesman, Walker was flying backseat when a bird of still unknown type struck the T-38 jet.

Flying front seat was another astronaut, whose name has not yet been released.

More details will be forthcoming.

Nigel Mc

Quite remarkable!

SpaceSteve

I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but I wonder if the front-seater was perhaps injured in the bird strike.

If Shannon Walker was the back-seater, and the Langley press release is correct that she landed the plane, and NASA isn't releasing information about the person in the front seat, it does make me wonder a bit.

I sincerely hope that is not the case, and the other pilot is OK also.

Robert Pearlman

From what I understand, NASA is just waiting for the front-seater's permission to release his name.

mikej

quote:Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:a bird of still unknown type struck the T-38 jet

I believe it was pâté.

astro-nut

Any word or release of who the pilot of the T-38 was for this incident? Thanks.

Robert Pearlman

The astronaut who was piloting the T-38 has requested NASA not release his name. His identity aside, I have inquired if an incident report is available (redacted as necessary).

Spaceguy5

I wonder which T-38 was involved in the accident.

FlightAware logs show NASA 910 as going to Langley on the 23rd, departing Houston at 8:21 AM CDT and doing an intermediate stop in Tennessee. NASA 910 later returned to Houston at 5:26 PM. (I'm confused by this, because I thought NASA 910 was scrapped)

NASA 921 is logged as having left Ellington at 7:49 for Arkansas (an airport frequently visited as an intermediate step in cross-country flights). It then shows 'flight result unknown,' with an estimated flight path returning to Ellington. NASA 921's next flight was later that day at 4:24 PM (just flying over the Houston area, and landing again at 5:09).

If it was NASA 921 in the accident, could they have really repaired/replaced the engine and had the plane flying again before Shannon Walker even returned to Ellington?

canyon42

I find it a little surprising that the astronaut in question even has the option to keep his/her identity secret. I'm trying to think of any other similar situations where that is the case. I mean, just as an example, if I am involved in a car accident (whether I am at fault or not), I can't just decide to remove my name from the public record. Interesting.

Robert Pearlman

I believe federal agencies are limited from disclosing information about individuals without the permission of the individual in question. The applicable law may be the Privacy Act of 1974, but I am not sure.

Cozmosis22

quote:Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:The astronaut who was piloting the T-38 has requested NASA not release his name.

Guess this confirms our initial suspicion that the original report, which implied that she was piloting the jet, was indeed inaccurate?

Robert Pearlman

As noted above:

Per a NASA spokesman, Walker was flying backseat...

Spaceguy5

quote:Originally posted by Cozmosis22: Guess this confirms our initial suspicion that the original report, which implied that she was piloting the jet, was indeed inaccurate?

Technically the back seater can pilot as there are a set of controls. However procedure is to have the pilot in the front seat control critical phases like landing.